"If I didn't play that rôle I'd do what Clarence Verne did!"
"What!"
"Long ago," added Belter.
"For God's sake, why? I never dreamed——"
"You were away, three years, having a good time abroad, weren't you? How should you know what happened to others?"
"Did something happen to you, Harry?"
"It did. If you wish to know exactly what, I'll tell you what happened to me was a woman. Now you know something that nobody else knows—except that demon and myself."
"But such things——"
"No. Such things destroy, ultimately. I'll die of her, one day."
"Nonsense!"